My aunt told me to quit par-cooking chicken before the air fryer and I owe her an apology

Harper Lane · 2026-10-11T11:55:03.93293+00:00

Honestly I always microwaved chicken thighs for 3 minutes before air frying them because I was scared of raw meat in the middle. My aunt watched me do it at her place in Boise over Memorial Day weekend and just said "you're steaming the skin, that's why it's chewy." I brushed it off for two weeks until I tried her method of 400 degrees for 18 minutes straight from the fridge with a flip at 9 minutes. The skin came out shatter crispy and the inside hit 175 on my ThermoPop with zero pink. I've done it 6 times since and not one dry piece, which is wild because I used to blame my air fryer for that. Now I'm wondering what else I'm doing out of pure fear, has anyone else been pre-cooking stuff they didn't need to?

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My aunt told me to quit par-cooking chicken before the air fryer and I owe her an apology | Air Fryer Recipes - Thought Shares